HIVE
HIVE was started in the late 1980s as a repair shop for Rex robots but the company got its big break when many employees of Rex left after the T-Rex incident. With the support of the Japanese government to create a peacekeeping robot, HIVE quickly began work on several models of high-end police, and military grade robots. Their robots are designed partially using research data collected from insects and thus often appear alien in design. In the years to follow HIVE became an a multimillion dollar company that proved that Rex was no longer king. Early Years In 1988, two researchers from Rex Corp. quit and started a small repair shop called "The Bee Hive". The name comes from the fact that the Super Rex's power cell was hexagonal in shape, like a honey comb. Using the knowledge gained from designing Rexes, the two made their money repairing and making modifications to Rexes. Syne Acquisition and Name Change By 2000, "The Bee Hive" had changed its name to the more imposing sounding HIVE, and had begun to work on an in-house robot design that would be better than the Rex company's finest machines. In 2003, the Syne company was bought by HIVE, but retained its name and became an in-house software developer. That same year Syne begun work on the Unity project which would be the basis for HIVE's first robot. T-Rex Incident and Onward On August 14th, 2009 during a weapon demonstration at US Air Base four T-Rexes were brought show to several military officials. Due to a malfunction, one of the machines went on a rampage and caused the deaths of two of the main Rex Engineers, several defense contractors, four high-ranking generals, and fifteen other military personal was well as causing over $15,000,000 in damages to aircraft and equipment. After this disaster, many R&D employees left Rex in order to save their reputaions. Luckily for them, HIVE was hiring. In 2011, Syne had finished work on the Unity software and split the now larger development team into two groups. One would maintain and patch the Unity software and the other, larger team, would begin work on project Snare. In 2013, HIVE released its first complete robot to the public the HM-02. Military Supplier In 2014 HIVE released two weaponized robots, which were aimed at encouraging worldwide militaries to begin purchasing their products. The first of these, released on Feburary 11, was the HM-03 dubbed the War-Beetle. It was extremely sturdy and much slower than the previous HIVE robot. It did well in weapons tests but was too slow for many militaries with a top speed on only 10mph. Several dozen were purchased by UK police forces to serve as riot deterents. On May 2 HIVE released the HM-04 Grasshopper. It utilized the potent Snare AI which was the masterpiece of Syne Co. The Grasshopper could adapt to nearly any situation and excelled an everything the War-Beetle and Cricket did not. Though not as fast as the Cricket, and not as hearty as the War-Beetle, the HM-04 was deadly smart and very dextrous. It had extemely powerful eyes that could see heat, vibrations, and through thin walls. It did not have footsteps due to the rubber-like material its feet were made of. This also made it made freed their feet of maintainence as well as providing great traction. The Grasshopper began to replace the Super Rex in the Mantle private security force due to it being easier to maintain, just as versatile, and able to be completely submerged for extended periods of time without affecting performance. The Grasshopper also became a favored spotter, body guard, and on some ocassions, assassin. The HM-06 Locust While militaries intersted in robot soldiers were satisfied with the performance of the Grasshopper, Mantle was not. They pointed out a fatal flaw with the AI, and several mechanical issues. Mantle sent a full report of rigorous stress tests on stock grasshoppers and as well as grasshoppers modified within Mantle's Ursa program. One of the most devastating failings was the "epilepsy glitch". The "epilepsy glitch" as it was named, was a software bug in the Snare AI that occured when the eyes of the HM-04 were exposed to a vast amount of information. If the eyes took in too much information at once the Snare AI would lock up and attempt to reboot. This overload was usually in the form of rapidly flashing colors, or patternless strobe lights. This reboot process would render the unit vulnerable for up to thirty seconds, an infinity in a war-zone. To prove this, Mantle invented a crude weapon that would rapildy flash colors/their negatives in a random cycle. It could trigger the glitch at a range of thirty yards. In response to this HIVE offered to begin a joint project with Mantle to create a high-performance robot based off the design of the HM-04. After several months of research and testing a design was chosen. It was dubbed the Locust due to it baring many similarities to the Grasshopper. This new design used a cloned brain instead of a CPU, for this reason it was quieter and lighter. The lighter frame allowed a flight system to be built into the back. Bering Genetics was chosen to clone the brain tissue needed for the production, and they delivered in full. On June 18, 2015, the HM-06 Locust was released to private collectors, museums, and militaries. It was deadly and efficient and needed little to no direction once it was given its orders. It could work with other Locusts, human soldiers, and other robots. Category:Company